M A I N   N E W S

BJP whacks Congress in Uttarakhand
Raju William/Tribune News Service

Former Union minister B C. Khanduri is likely to be the Chief Moinister of the state, a senior BJP leader indicated.

Former Congress chief minister Narain Dutt Tiwari attributed several reasons for his party's defeat. He did not take complete responsibility for the defeat, saying that he had performed his job satisfactorily.

He declined to go into details. The only consolation for the Congress came from the Tehri parliamentary constituency from where its candidate Vijay Bahuguna defeated BJP candidate Manujendra Shah. The election for this seat was held simultaneously with the Assembly election.

The atmosphere at the state BJP office in the Dalanwala area had been upbeat since morning when the results started pouring in. In contrast, the Congress office on Rajpur Road wore a deserted look throughout the day. No senior leader was present.

Among surprises, the former BJP chief minister Nityanand Swami was defeated from the Laxman Chowk seat while the Congress heavyweights and the two most powerful ministers, Indra Hariydesh and Navprabhat, also lost the election from Haldwani and Vikas Nagar constituencies. The latter is the son-in-law of Tiwari. The UKD chief Kashi Singh Airy was another heavyweight loser.

Both parties suffered equally from the rebel factor. Of the total 32 Congress rebels, only three won while none of the 16 BJP rebels could open their account but caused the defeat of its candidates in three constituencies.

The Kashipur constituency in the Punjabi dominated Udham Singh Nagar district returned the only Sikh candidate Harbhajan Singh Cheema who contested on the BJP ticket. The Congress wrested three and BSP two seats out of the total six constituencies that went to the polls in this district.

A first timer Om Gopal of the UKD defeated Congress candidate Subodh Uniyal by the lowest winning margin of four votes from the Narendra Nagar constituency.

News Analysis
Uttarakhand has strong implications for UP
Naveen S Garewal
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, February 27
The emergence of the BJP as a clear winner in the Uttarakhand poll has not come as a surprise to those who could sense a divide in the mood between people of the hills and the plains in this Himalayan state. The Congress has managed to win three seats in upper Garhwal, neighbouring Himachal Pradesh, and the remaining mostly in southern Garhwal and the Kamaun region.

In fact of the 21 seats the Congress has managed to win, a few are in Tehri and Pauri Garhwal, followed by the lower Kamaun region where the Congress has won about half a dozen seats around Almora and Ranikhet areas. The Congress also failed to make any substantial dent in the Tarai region where investments were concentrated during the Congress rule. Here the Congress got three seats of Jaspur, Rudrapur-Kichha and Khatima.

The BSP has managed to win eight seats in the south-western and south-eastern parts of the state. Both these touch Uttar Pradesh. The six seats of Bhagwanpur, Iqbalpur, Manglor, Landhaura, Bahadrabad and Laldhang won by the BSP are closely aligned to the neighbouring Uttar Pradesh’s Saharanpur and Muzaffarnagar districts that have a seizable Muslim population as compared to Haridwar and Rishikesh that voted for the BJP’s Hindutava agenda.

The other two seats won by the BSP are Pantnagar and Sitarganj in the Terai and almost touching Uttar Pradesh’s Rampur and Pilibhit districts. The BSP’s performance can serve as an indicator for things to come in the forthcoming Uttar Pradesh elections. The Samajwadi Party contested 55 seats, but did not win even one, despite Mulayam Singh Yadav spending considerable time here on canvassing.

Being a small state with only 70 seats, out of which 69 went to the poll, the difference of 13 seats between the BJP and the Congress may not appear that big, but if the seats are plotted on a map, the sheer vastness of the BJP influence on the voters cannot be considered to be short of a sweep, despite the fact that the BJP will still have to take the two Uttarakhand Karanti Dal or three Independents into its fold to attain a simple majority and form the government.

The factors that have contributed towards the victory of the BJP include anti-incumbency, unemployment, charges of corruption, price rise and distribution of largess by the Congress to its party men by according them the status of a minister of state (commonly recognised by a car with a red beacon).

The women, who have had a large role in the creation of Uttarakhand in the year 2000, have felt ignored by the Congress and the BJP, but decided to vote against the Congress to remind it of its failed promises to the women and also using it as a warning to the BJP. Other than this the issue of Hindutava did divide the state’s secular votes, especially in some areas.

To top it all, factionalism in the Congress, clubbed with the near absence of Chief Minister N.D Tiwari from the campaign till a week before polling caused damage the party which could not be undone despite canvassing by Congress president Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.